The Official LANCE ARMSTRONG Thread 2010-2011

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kurtinsc

Nov 17, 2009
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BikeCentric said:
Is fatty Pharmstrong no longer racing the Tour de Suisse?

There is simply no way he's going to be competitive at Le Tour when he's now getting spanking by skinny little climbers (Tommy D.) and U-23 riders in an ITT. Stick a fork in him, he's done. I don't care how many needles Ferrari injects in the old man, he's got nothing left.
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I don't think he's got enough left to win the Tour by any stretch.

But based on his past increases in performance from early season results to June/July form... I think he'll still put in a respectable peformance come July. Probably a top 7-8 finish, in contention for the final podium spot.

Yeah.. not an impressive TT. But he TT'd equal to Vino in the short Criterium International TT earlier in the seaon and was ahead of Zabriskie (who crushed him today) in Murcia.

He'll probably get whatever he always had done in May or early June, and we'll see him near the front come July.
 
Jonathan

Jonathan

Jul 13, 2009
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kurtinsc said:
I don't think he's got enough left to win the Tour by any stretch.

But based on his past increases in performance from early season results to June/July form... I think he'll still put in a respectable peformance come July. Probably a top 7-8 finish, in contention for the final podium spot.

Yeah.. not an impressive TT. But he TT'd equal to Vino in the short Criterium International TT earlier in the seaon and was ahead of Zabriskie (who crushed him today) in Murcia.

He'll probably get whatever he always had done in May or early June, and we'll see him near the front come July.
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It's either that or we get to see him lose serious time in some mountain stage (say 20+ minutes). I don't think Armstrong will be able to stomach that, if it happens. And if he does reach the top ten or even top 5, everyone (well, aside from some forum members) will be astonished by the amazing performance of such an 'old' man.

My point is: Armstrong is going to bring drama to the Tour, no matter what. He's a dramatic if not practical rival for Contador, he's either the falling champion or the fading warrior, and he will increase the number of stories that the race will tell. Since I don't expect the same embarrassing scenes from last year, this is most likely to turn out well. Drama is what the Tour is all about.
 
Dr. Maserati

Dr. Maserati

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Jun 19, 2009
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kurtinsc said:
Kind of an annoying interface though... you have to go to the team each year and search the team results to find results for the rider? Bleh. I prefer this one:

http://www.cyclingwebsite.net/coureurs.php

Anyway, I didn't see anything I left off in the first list. Unless you want stage wins too... then there's a few in the races I listed already, a 2nd in a Murcia TT in 2003, a stage win in Tour du Languedoc-Rousillon in 2004 (never heard of this race), a stage win in Algrave in 2004 and a couple of 3rd places in the 2005 Tour of Georgia.

Again... not saying he's even done that well this year... but saying he "dominated" before June in any of his Tour winning seasons is just false.
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Who said he "dominated" before June"?

I have checked back the last 5 pages of this thread and did a search for the word "dominated" and besides your post the last was in March.

More to the point - you are using 'results' and finishing places as your 'barometer' for Lance's previous season's - this is flawed.

A quick example - LA finished The Tour of Flanders in 2005 in 28th, this year he finished better in 27th. But finishing times would be a closer reflection than placings so lets have a closer look - in 2005 he was @ 2:04, in 2010 he was @ 2:35. So he is in the ballpark.

One thing about looking solely at results is that it does not give an accurate account of the race.
In 2005 LA was working very hard for Hincapie and did a lot of turns at the front chasing down the break - until he blew with a little over 20k to go after doing a solid days work.

In 2010 he was TRS main man - so had protected status. While his result in RVV was good, in the context of previous years he is behind on his form.
 
K

kurtinsc

Nov 17, 2009
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Dr. Maserati said:
Who said he "dominated" before June"?

I have checked back the last 5 pages of this thread and did a search for the word "dominated" and besides your post the last was in March.

More to the point - you are using 'results' and finishing places as your 'barometer' for Lance's previous season's - this is flawed.

A quick example - LA finished The Tour of Flanders in 2005 in 28th, this year he finished better in 27th. But finishing times would be a closer reflection than placings so lets have a closer look - in 2005 he was @ 2:04, in 2010 he was @ 2:35. So he is in the ballpark.

One thing about looking solely at results is that it does not give an accurate account of the race.
In 2005 LA was working very hard for Hincapie and did a lot of turns at the front chasing down the break - until he blew with a little over 20k to go after doing a solid days work.

In 2010 he was TRS main man - so had protected status. While his result in RVV was good, in the context of previous years he is behind on his form.
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This is what I was referring to
I don't doubt that - but I dunno why he would sandbag for the first half of the season instead of getting god racing miles in?

Doesn't he like to win big races? Wasn't his whole aura during his heyday based on the premise that he was an unstoppable force - that nothing his opponents could do would matter - he would crush you in the first ITT and his train would launch him on the first mountain top finish and you would spend the rest of the race playing catch-up.
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Perhapse I read this wrong, but I interpreted it as stating that he didn't "sandbag for the first half of the season" in the past, and that in all the races he rode during the year he was the "unstoppable force".

Perhaps the problem was my interpretation. The fact is he was never "unstoppable" except in July (and in some years June). He was a rider who rarely showed much until his big race... the Tour. I'm not sure how much his performance now indicates that he'll be horrific in July. Yeah... it's not great and probably not up to what he did in some past years... but he was never "unstoppable" outside of his peak months.
 
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Beech Mtn

Oct 6, 2009
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Did he ever explain how the uniball miraculously came back to life? Back when I liked the guy, I read his book and remember reading about him and Kristen having to go through all the fertility treatments to have kids. But wasn't Max conceived the old-fashioned way?
 
Arnout

Arnout

Mar 10, 2009
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Nice for them.

I think its a bit of a pity that behavior towards Lance is so negative overhere. I mean, after all he's the man who won seven Tours and took the gamble to come back, and did it quite respectable (to come in third in le Tour is respectable by any means and for any rider except Contador. To come in third after three kind of vacation years when aged 38 is even better).

I mean, he's the one who is riding and who is suffering. We are the ones who are judging him from behind our screens. I think it is very brave that he decided to come back and to come back at this level and I respect him for that. A lot.

However, and that's the tricky bit, he's not behaving himself. We all know the stories of last year and how he's behaving when he loses out on someone. Not good. But that doesn't mean that everything that his Lanceness does is negative or wrong.

I am not a Lance supporter by any means, not a Contador supporter either. The behavior of Lance caused more sympathy towards Contador, but I respect both riders. And I think both riders, Lance included, deserve that.
 
Dr. Maserati

Dr. Maserati

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kurtinsc said:
This is what I was referring to

Perhapse I read this wrong, but I interpreted it as stating that he didn't "sandbag for the first half of the season" in the past, and that in all the races he rode during the year he was the "unstoppable force".

Perhaps the problem was my interpretation. The fact is he was never "unstoppable" except in July (and in some years June). He was a rider who rarely showed much until his big race... the Tour. I'm not sure how much his performance now indicates that he'll be horrific in July. Yeah... it's not great and probably not up to what he did in some past years... but he was never "unstoppable" outside of his peak months.
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Appreciate the clarification - I took 'unstoppable force' more as once Lance arrived in Europe in Feb/Mar he was focused on July and willing to ride the hard races to get himself in to shape and reasonable form.

Previous years blueprints - March was riding in some stage races - then in April after testing himself in a big Classic (RVV or Amstel) he did another stage race (Tour of Georgia etc). May was spent doing a recon of the TdF course and June was a full test in particular stages of either the Tour de Suisse or Dauphine.

I wasn't worried about his form when he arrived to do his first race in Europe in March - I even said, 'Meh, March' - but for me the alarm bells started when he pulled a sickie for Milan San Remo, but again there was time to correct things.
While he did better than expected in RVV that should have been a building block to a period of heavy work - either in stage races or 'camps' in Europe. It wasn't and returning to the USA offers to many distractions.

It appears to be a lack of motivation - which I think he may regret in years to come.
 
T

Tangled Tango

Jun 24, 2009
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Arnout said:
Nice for them.

I think its a bit of a pity that behavior towards Lance is so negative overhere. I mean, after all he's the man who won seven Tours and took the gamble to come back, and did it quite respectable (to come in third in le Tour is respectable by any means and for any rider except Contador. To come in third after three kind of vacation years when aged 38 is even better).

I mean, he's the one who is riding and who is suffering. We are the ones who are judging him from behind our screens. I think it is very brave that he decided to come back and to come back at this level and I respect him for that. A lot.

However, and that's the tricky bit, he's not behaving himself. We all know the stories of last year and how he's behaving when he loses out on someone. Not good. But that doesn't mean that everything that his Lanceness does is negative or wrong.

I am not a Lance supporter by any means, not a Contador supporter either. The behavior of Lance caused more sympathy towards Contador, but I respect both riders. And I think both riders, Lance included, deserve that.
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For my part Greg Lemond said it best: Either it´s the greatest comeback in sporting history or the greatest fraud. I think the answer to the negativity is over at the clinic.
 
alberto.legstrong

alberto.legstrong

Mar 22, 2010
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Arnout said:
Nice for them.

I think its a bit of a pity that behavior towards Lance is so negative overhere. I mean, after all he's the man who won seven Tours and took the gamble to come back, and did it quite respectable (to come in third in le Tour is respectable by any means and for any rider except Contador. To come in third after three kind of vacation years when aged 38 is even better).

I mean, he's the one who is riding and who is suffering. We are the ones who are judging him from behind our screens. I think it is very brave that he decided to come back and to come back at this level and I respect him for that. A lot.

However, and that's the tricky bit, he's not behaving himself. We all know the stories of last year and how he's behaving when he loses out on someone. Not good. But that doesn't mean that everything that his Lanceness does is negative or wrong.

I am not a Lance supporter by any means, not a Contador supporter either. The behavior of Lance caused more sympathy towards Contador, but I respect both riders. And I think both riders, Lance included, deserve that.
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We all have our turning point. Most of the hate filled posts are written by people who once felt precisely like you do now. I loved him. Until 2009. Others turned much sooner. But there aren't a lot who always hated him.
 
Arnout

Arnout

Mar 10, 2009
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Well actually I'm quite impartial on this one. I really don't like his behavior towards Contador and the stuff around it but I still respect some of his other choices he made last years. Those choices (coming back, coming third) won't change whatever he does. Simple as that.

And Greg LeMond is, I'm sorry to say, a bit mad. He's frustrated he lost to the EPO guys and is still upset about it. His statements are based on nothing. Chances are of course Lance dopes, he did during some part of his career, that's for sure. Actually I don't care, but that's just me. And he's even more brave if he's doping now. Only imagine him being caught tomorrow. Hell will break lose.
 
Berzin

Berzin

Aug 6, 2009
2,111
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11,495
BikeCentric said:
Is fatty Pharmstrong no longer racing the Tour de Suisse?

There is simply no way he's going to be competitive at Le Tour when he's now getting spanking by skinny little climbers (Tommy D.) and U-23 riders in an ITT. Stick a fork in him, he's done. I don't care how many needles Ferrari injects in the old man, he's got nothing left.
Click to expand...

No reason to think otherwise, and I hope the reality of this situation holds firm.

But if this guy comes out riding like gangbusters at the Tour, it will show the world how truly screwed cycling is.

He may not have performed well in seasons past during his Tour run-ups, but he's much older now. How could it be at all possible that he shows up to the Tour and compete against guys who've been racing all damn year?
 
ferryman

ferryman

Dec 30, 2009
3,801
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Berzin said:
No reason to think otherwise, and I hope the reality of this situation holds firm.

But if this guy comes out riding like gangbusters at the Tour, it will show the world how truly screwed cycling is.

He may not have performed well in seasons past during his Tour run-ups, but he's much older now. How could it be at all possible that he shows up to the Tour and compete against guys who've been racing all damn year?
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+100 but I really can't see it.
 
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